Blackthorn Winter Read Online Free PDF

cried Edmund and Ivy.
    I felt pretty near to collapsing, just as Mom had said, and not really a bit hungry. But Duncan was suddenly chattering away to the Goops as if he were their long-lost friend. And yet he'd said barely two words to me! What did they have that I didn't?
    "To the Old Ship then," said Quent, ushering us toward the door.
    Liza pouted for a moment, then brightened. "Well, I'll walk that way with you," she said cheerfully, "and then be off for home. It's for the best really. I've got a Drama Society meeting later tonight ... I've been elected president of
the society—did I tell you already? And we've just finished tryouts for our new three-act play,
Voyage of the Jumblies!
I've phoned all the cast members to announce their parts, but we're meeting tonight to hand out the scripts. Too bad all characters have been assigned, Hedda, or I'd be asking you to join us!" Liza spoke rapidly, never giving Mom a chance to say that she wouldn't want to be in a play, that she always had stage fright, that even having to approach gallery owners about exhibiting her paintings was an ordeal for her. "But, never mind," Liza was saying, "I'll pop round here again in the morning, Hedda, darling, to take you and your kiddies on a tour of the village. And then, of course, I'll be seeing you tomorrow night at the party as well." She quirked an eyebrow at Quent. "Or wasn't I supposed to tell her about the party yet?"
    "Good thing it wasn't meant to be a surprise," he told Mom with a warm smile, shaking his head at Liza. "Yes, I'm hosting a little gathering of the Blackthorn art scene at the house tomorrow. Very informal. Everyone's coming around seven. They're eager to meet you. They've looked at your website and read the reviews, and there's a lot of interest. In fact, the local Art Collective is putting on an exhibition at the end of April—it's a yearly springtime extravaganza—and we've all agreed we'd like to have several of your pieces in it. If you'll agree."
    "How kind of you!" exclaimed Mom. "Of course I agree. And won't a party be fun, kids? Juliana, you'll enjoy a party!"
    Liza's trilling laugh filled the room again. "Oh, I don't suppose Quent meant it to be a
children's
party, Hedda, darling!"
    But Quent quelled her with another impatient shake of his head. "Of course Juliana's most welcome, and Ivy and
Edmund, too. Duncan will be there, won't you, Dunk-o? And I've no doubt Celia Glendenning will be bringing Kate along."
    I wasn't sure he'd meant for the party to include kids after all, but at least he'd covered it up gracefully. I wondered who Kate would turn out to be. I liked parties, and going to one at Duncan's house sounded fun to me. Maybe
then
I'd manage to get him to talk to me.
    It didn't hurt to dream, I told myself, grabbing my coat off the row of hooks by the door and following my little brother and sister and their cute-but-shy (or possibly indifferent) redheaded pal out into the rainy evening. Maybe if I were very lucky I could get out of going on the village tour with Liza Pethering in the morning, and Duncan would show me around instead. However, it was more likely, I had to admit to myself from the look of things, Duncan would offer to show the Goops around, and I would just end up tagging behind.
    Â 
    W E HURRIED ALONG the wet streets, huddling together under Quent's and Liza's large, black umbrellas (
brollies,
Quent called them), and soon came to the center of town and the pub called the Old Ship. The Old Ship was built back in 1615 as an inn for travelers along the coast road, Quent informed us, and it was even older than his Old Mill House. It was a gray stone building directly across from the bush-filled traffic island in the middle of the main street. We entered through an archway into a low-ceilinged dining room. "Watch your heads," cautioned Quent. "People were shorter in those days!"
    "This place was here even
before
the Pilgrims came to America!" Ivy whispered to me, awed.